So I'm watching President Bush's address about hurricane Katrina last night, and I've got mixed emotions. Yay that he's addressing Mississippi's concerns! For a while I wondered if anyone even remembered it was there. But at the same time, he's talking about all this help that Mississippi is getting. The loans and grants and builders. The rental assistance and jobs. He's talking about how much better things are and how people have hope again.

And I'm thinking, wow, we should be doing really, really well. My house must be rebuilt, and I must have tons of money in the bank!

Uh, not.

SBA loans? We were forced to apply for an SBA loan because we had good credit and didn't qualify for FEMA money. But get this…it's been over four months and we haven't even heard back on the SBA loan. NOTHING. Zip.

FEMA money? Don't make me laugh. Well, to be fair, the state of Washington and FEMA have gotten together to buy us some furniture, so I'm grateful for that. Been mattress shopping. Sleeping on the floor is getting old.

But here's the thing; I don't want loans and grants. I want our freaking HURRICANE insurance to pay off. The insurance we've been paying outrageous monthly payments on in order to be protected from HURRICANES. I don't want the government to bail me out. I want the hurricane insurance company to do what it should do but isn't because of a wording loophole. Oh, and even more fun, we haven't heard from them since the day the replacement adjuster came to the house. It's been almost two months. So almost four and a half months after the hurricane, we've heard NOTHING about what insurance will pay (which we expect to cover only the roof.) And FEMA says they can't do anything else for us until they get the insurance paperwork. Which we don't have. Because the insurance company won't return our calls. Because they are busy.

"Ma'am, your claim is still being evaluated." For TWO MONTHS???? ARGH!

But…at least we DID have an adjuster. A lot of people in Mississippi have hurricane insurance companies that just ASSUMED that all damage was caused by storm surge, so they didn't even send adjusters. They just sent letters to the homeowners saying that nothing was covered by hurricane insurance. Without ever even seeing the house.

The good news is that my husband has a found a builder who specializes in fixing hurricane damaged structures. Get this–he's been a contractor for years, but over the last five years he's exclusively worked on hurricane damaged houses. Five YEARS. Isn't it crazy that there's been so much hurricane work in the last five years that this contractor has done nothing else?

Okay, enough of that. I'm off to get a wisdom tooth surgically removed. I will probably be spending the weekend writhing in pain in my bed, er, floor, so if I disappear for a couple of days, that's why! :cry: